2012 Books

The Shack by William P. Young

I just couldn't get into this book. I gave up on it a few chapters in.

Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs

One of my favourite authors. 

It's race week, a body is found in a metal drum near Charlotte Motor Speedway-a discovery that has NASCAR crewman Wayne Gamble urgently seeking out Tempe at the Mecklenburg County ME's office.  Twelve years ago, his sister, Cindi, then a high school senior and aspiring professional race car driver , disappears along with her boyfriend, Cale Lovette, who was linked to a group of right-wing extremists.  The FBI joined the investigation but it was soon terminated.  Is the body Cindi's?  Or Cales's?  Test reveal that a toxic substance was in the drum with the body-just as another disappearance occurs. 

Vanish by Tess Gerritsen

A nameless woman appears to be just another body at the morgue-until Boston medical examiner Maura Isles sees the corpse open its eyes.  The now frantic Jane Doe is rushed to the hospital, where with cool precision she shoots a security guard and seizes hostages, one of whom is pregnant homicide detective Jane Rizzoli.  As the tense hours tick by, Maura joins forces with Jane's husband, FBI agent Gabriel Den, to track down the killer's identity.  But this case goes far deeper than just an ordinary hostage crisis, and Jane, trapped with the armed madwoman, is the only one who holds the key to the mystery.

Angels Cry Sometimes by Josephine Cox.

The marriage of Marcia and Curt Ratheter seemes idyllically happy.   But one fateful day in 1931 brought Marcia's world tumbling about her ears and left her and her two daughters bereft.

 Barty Bendell had always loved her, he said; and the girls needed a father.  Marcia moved to Blackburn with him, where she tried to forget the past.  Barty, though, sank into bad ways, tyrannizing the family.  In particular he would vent his aggression on Polly.  Curt and Marcia's first born, blond as an angel but afflicted at birth with an ominous shadow ever her health.

Even in troubled times, lovely Marcia was a fighter.  But news that Curt Ratheter had reappeared would render her helpless prey to wild conflicting emotions.

All My Sisters by Judith Lennox

Iris, Marianne, Eva and Clemency are the daughters of Sheffield manufacturer, Joshua Maclise.  In the tumultous years before the First World War, the sisters seek to fulfil their ambitions.

Pretty, self-centered Iris dreams of a grand marriage, quiet Marianne meets the love of her life, and passionate Eva longs for independence.  Only Clemency, caring for her invalid mother, remains tied to the family home.  Years pass and her hopes of marriage dashed, Iris becomes a nurse in a London hospital.  Marianne, living on a tea estate in Ceylon, finds first her happiness and then her life threatened by a cruel and ruthless man.  When Eva falls in love with the Bohemian, Gabriel Bellamy, her dreams of a career as an artist falter.

As the clouds darken and war changes the lives of all the sisters, Clemency fights to free herself from the bonds that confine her and to discover love at last.

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

Meet Delores Price.  She's thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye.  Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with candy, potatos chips and Pepsi her mother supplies.  When she finally rolls into womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder.  But this time she is determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up.

Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts

In 1972, windswept DeClare, Oklahoma, was consumed by a terrifying crime: the murder of a young mother, Gaylene Harjo, and the disappearance of her baby, Nicky Jack.  When the child's pajama bottoms were discovered on the banks of Willow Creek, everyone feared that he, too, had been killed, although his body was never found.

Now, nearly thirty years later, Nicky Jack mysteriously returns to DeClare, shocking the town with his sudden reappearance and stirring up long-buried memories.  But what he discovers about the night he vanished is far more than he, or anyone, bargains for.

Accidental Mother by Rowan Coleman

Sophie and Carrie were childhood best friends, but in the last few years they've lost touch.  While Carrie chose motherhood in a small town, Sophie is powering up the London career track.  She's a corporate manager poised for her next promotion.

And then Sophie is tole that Carrie has died, with nobody left to care for her two daughters, Bella and Izzy, aged six and three.  Their father, who left before Carrie's death, is nowhere to be found; their grandmother is moving into assisted living.  Sophie once promised Carrie she would take care of her children if the worst ever happened.....and now that day has come.

That's all for now.